Mike Portnoy & Arejay Hale Discuss Favorite Drummers of All Time

Hale shows off stick tricks and Portnoy gives his advice for young drummers on the newest episode of 'Metalhead To Head'

link copied

6/10/14

"A stereotype I've bonded with a lot of drummers over the years is that we're all just cavemen at heart."

"Well, we hit things for a living!"

Drummers Mike Portnoy (Winery Dogs, Dream Theater) and Arejay Hale (Halestorm) team up this week for a new episode of Metalhead To Head. Check out Part 1 of the episode above and Part 2 below!

Portnoy, who is widely known for his dedication to impeccable technique and who is one of the youngest drummers to be inducted into Modern Drummer's Hall of Fame, discusses his admiration of Hale's energy and acrobatics when performing live. Hale demonstrates some stick tricks and reveals why he began adding showmanship into his live playing–he was inspired by legends like Led Zeppelin's John Bonham and The Who's Keith Moon.

The two veterans get into talks about their favorite drummers of all time, the best drummers who were also lead vocalists (Portnoy mentions Jellyfish's Andy Sturmer, who had one of the more unique stage setups from a drummer), their advice for new drummers about how they can become more versatile and much, much more.

Portnoy talks about the Winery Dogs record that came out last year along with the music cruise he put on in February–during which he performed live with three different bands! One of the busiest drummers in rock music, Portnoy will be on the road with Winery Dogs this summer. You can follow him on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Hale reveals that Halestorm is writing for their new album, which will be the follow-up to 2012's The Strange Case Of... and is tentatively scheduled for a late 2014 release. Hale is on Twitter as well.

Watch new episodes of Fuse's digital series Metalhead to Head every Tuesday at 1PM ET on Fuse.tv. Catch up on all the previous episodes of Metalhead to Headhere!